Angola Prison could soon house detained immigrants
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Angola Prison could soon be part of the Trump administration's massive immigration enforcement system.
Why it matters: The move would enlarge Louisiana's already massive role in federal immigration enforcement.
Zoom in: Citing unnamed sources, multiple news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and the Times-Picayune, say state officials are in talks with the Trump administration to house detained immigrants at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
- The facility, more commonly known as Angola, is the state's largest maximum-security prison.
- Gov. Jeff Landry quietly signed an executive order July 25 to expedite repairs to one of its defunct cell blocks, Camp J, which has been closed since 2018. In the order, Landry cited overcrowding as an issue and referenced maximum-security offenders who "will be transferred to its facilities."
Louisiana is already a linchpin in how Immigration and Customs Enforcement moves people through the judicial system and out of the country, with the nation's second-largest population of detained immigrants.
- Most are detained in the central part of the state, split among eight prisons and a staging facility in Alexandria. All but one are privately operated, according to an ACLU report.
The big picture: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters last month that she saw Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" facility as a model for other states to follow.
- Though Angola wasn't mentioned, Noem told CBS News last week that Louisiana was among states under consideration for that kind of enforcement expansion.
- "The locations we're looking at are right by airport runways that will help give us an efficiency that we've never had before," Noem said, echoing the context of a recent New York Times report examining the uniqueness of Louisiana's existing ICE facilities.
- She also referenced states with "facilities that may be empty or underutilized."
What we're watching: It's already happening in Indiana.
- Last week, Noem announced a 1,000-bed expansion of an Indiana state prison, which she's calling "The Speedway Slammer."
What they're saying: So far, not much.
- Landry has been mum on whether ICE plans to use Angola facilities, and Axios' request for comment from the Louisiana Department of Corrections went unanswered.
- A DHS spokeswoman said she would share updates "if and when" they became available.